Scottish Executive

Community Care

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to provide additional guidance to local authorities to reinforce the importance of carer consultation and encourage best practice in this area.

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how it will monitor local authority community care planning structures to ensure that they are made more open, accessible and carer friendly.

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is considering providing guidelines on carer consultation for NHS staff to ensure carers are fully involved in service planning.

Malcolm Chisholm: Consultation with carers about service planning and delivery is expected of all local authorities. The Carers Strategy made clear the importance which the Executive places on the inclusion of carers' views and expertise in the development of community care plans and services. Each local authority will wish to develop its own links with carers in its area. We plan to issue wide-ranging good practice guidance on supporting carers to local authorities and NHS bodies, which will remind local authorities and the NHS of the importance of involving carers in planning services. Carers’ organisations and statutory agencies will have a lead role in developing this guidance, which we propose should include some monitoring component.

Environment

Alasdair Morgan (Galloway and Upper Nithsdale) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how often in the last year representatives of Scottish Natural Heritage have met representatives of the Quarry Products Association.

Allan Wilson: This is a matter for Scottish Natural Heritage. The information requested is not held centrally.

Historic Buildings

John Scott (Ayr) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what financial savings would result from the abolition of the Historic Buildings Council for Scotland.

Dr Elaine Murray: Abolition of the Historic Buildings Council for Scotland will provide a saving to the Scottish Executive of about £20,000 per annum.

Housing

Linda Fabiani (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive when the next recommendations of the Housing Improvement Task Force will be made to it and when these recommendations will be published.

Ms Margaret Curran: The task force will make its recommendations to the Executive in its final report to be published early in 2003.

Housing

Linda Fabiani (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to submit the next recommendations of the Housing Improvement Task Force to any other body prior to publication.

Ms Margaret Curran: It is for the task force itself to decide whether to propose that its recommendations should be the subject of further consultation, but there are no plans at present for this in advance of submitting its views to the Scottish Executive.

Marine Environment

Mr Jamie McGrigor (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what evidence it presented, or specific representations it made, to the National Audit Office during the compilation of their report, Dealing With Pollution From Ships , and what subsequent representations it has made to the Department of Transport to ensure the protection of the inshore waters from Cape Wrath to the Mull of Kintyre, certain areas of Orkney and Shetland and the Inner Moray Firth and the Firth of Forth given that these areas are not protected by the Merchant Shipping Prevention of Oil Pollution Regulations 1996.

Allan Wilson: The Scottish Executive has no locus in the report by the Comptroller and Auditor General to the UK Parliament on the pollution contingency planning and response responsibilities of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, which is an executive agency of the Department for Transport.

  However, the Scottish Executive is in regular contact with the UK Government on a wide range of issues, including marine pollution affecting waters adjacent to Scotland.

NHS Funding

Fiona Hyslop (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what the projected shortfall in NHS funding for Lothian NHS Board is, broken down by NHS trust and hospital.

Malcolm Chisholm: NHS Lothian has received its fair share of funding. In 2002-03 NHS Lothian will receive record funding of over £754 million, a 6.8% increase on 2001-02.

  Distribution of this allocation is a matter of local negotiation.

National Parks

Mr Brian Monteith (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive when it will announce the appointment of the 10 ministerial appointees to the board of the new Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Authority.

Allan Wilson: Details of the 10 directly appointed members of the board of the National Park Authority were announced on 4 July along with details of the 10 nominated members. Details of the composition of the full board are available on the Executive’s website ( www.scotland.gov.uk ).

Public Private Partnerships

Michael Russell (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what the scale of any Public Private Partnership in South Lanarkshire would be; when monies would become available, and what the timescale and conditions would be for any such project.

Nicol Stephen: As indicated in the answer given to question S1W-27026, the Scottish Executive will provide revenue support towards a schools Public Private Partnership (PPP) project in South Lanarkshire involving capital investment of up to £150 million. The Executive will keep in touch with the council as it develops the project in detail. It will now be for the council to consider the components of such a project and its timescale. Financial support is required when the facilities to be provided through the PPP are available for use. Standard conditions will apply to the offer of revenue support.

Rural Development

Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive who the members of the Scottish National Rural Partnership are, what its remit is and on what dates it has met.

Allan Wilson: The Scottish National Rural Partnership is an advisory body to ministers on rural policy, and exists to promote effective liaison between public, private and voluntary sector interests on rural matters.

  The partnership, which currently has 17 members, is chaired by a Scottish Executive official. Members, appointed for their own expertise and knowledge of rural issues, are nominated by the following organisations:

  Confederation of British Industry Scotland

  Communities Scotland

  Convention of Scottish Local Authorities

  Federation of Small Businesses

  Forestry Commission

  Highlands & Islands Enterprise

  National Farmers Union Scotland

  Scottish Council of Voluntary Organisations

  Scottish Crofting Foundation

  Scottish Enterprise

  Scottish Environment LINK

  Scottish Landowners Federation

  Scottish Natural Heritage

  Scottish Trades Union Congress

  The Scottish Agricultural College

  VisitScotland

  The partnership has met a total of 29 times since 1996. In 2002, it has met twice, on 29 January and 3 May, and a third meeting will take place in early September.

Social Enterprise

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what action is being taken to develop a method of measuring the benefits of social enterprises.

Ms Margaret Curran: Social enterprises have demonstrated their capacity, across a range of policy areas, to provide efficient and effective services to their customers by, for example, working closely with the communities that they serve and by recycling any surpluses into improving the services or products they provide. Communities Scotland has a role to play in the development of social enterprises and they are working jointly with Scottish Enterprise and SCVO on this, including working to develop an effective monitoring and evaluation framework that will measure the outcomes and the effectiveness of social economy enterprises.

Social Inclusion Partnerships

Colin Campbell (West of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many staff have left the Inverclyde Regeneration Partnership since January 2002 and what proportion of the total staff this represents.

Hugh Henry: Four members of the Inverclyde support team staff have resigned since January 2002. The total agreed staff establishment for Inverclyde Social Inclusion Partnership is 10.

Youth Crime

David McLetchie (Lothians) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive which of the top 40 categories of offence referred to children’s reporters it classifies as serious.

Cathy Jamieson: All offending behaviour is treated seriously by the Executive and by the agencies concerned in youth justice. The Procurator Fiscal decides whether certain offences merit prosecution in court or whether use of alternatives to prosecution or referral to the Reporter may be more appropriate.

  


Following are statistics on parliamentary questions 
  and answers for the period from 27/05/2002 to 21/06/2002




  During this period, the holidays on 31 May, 3 and 4 June resulted in fewer days being available to the Scottish Executive in which to answer parliamentary questions.

  





Scottish Executive


Presiding Officer


Total




Total questions asked


618


22


640




Total questions answered


712


19


731




  


Total non-recess questions answered 
  (breakdown)




Answered within:


Scottish Executive


Presiding Officer




0-14 days


465


12




2-4 weeks


181


7




4-6 weeks


28


0




6-8 weeks


11


0




8 weeks and over


12


0




Total answered


697


19




  


Total recess questions answered 
  (breakdown)




Answered within:


Scottish Executive


Presiding Officer




0-28 days


0


0




4-6 weeks


0


0




6-8 weeks


6


0




8 weeks and over


9


0




Total answered


15


0